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A review by lauren_endnotes
Wait, Blink by Gunnhild Øyehaug
4.0
The inner lives - all the tangential thoughts, all the inside references, all the inter relations - are on display in this novel, subtitles 'A Perfect Picture of Inner Life'. This was my second book by Øyehaug, so I knew to expect her skilled and clever writing, yet frenetic pace that I saw in KNOTS, her short story collection.
Wait, Blink focuses on a handful of women at different ages and stages of life, viewed in this ever-present, all out omniscient way. Characters enter and exit like a stage play, scenes switch with time and date stamps, we see inside and outside the characters, as if looking from above at mice in a maze.
The language is fast and detailed, full of cultural references to film, TV, and books - a lengthy discourse on Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 and Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation is swiftly followed by Don Quixote and Albert Camus references. Feminist performance art, freak bicycle accidents, and pining over author photos on book jackets. Just some of the situations our characters encounter.
Clever metafiction by a great storyteller. Now for more Øyehaug English translations... I hope there are more to come!
Wait, Blink focuses on a handful of women at different ages and stages of life, viewed in this ever-present, all out omniscient way. Characters enter and exit like a stage play, scenes switch with time and date stamps, we see inside and outside the characters, as if looking from above at mice in a maze.
The language is fast and detailed, full of cultural references to film, TV, and books - a lengthy discourse on Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 and Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation is swiftly followed by Don Quixote and Albert Camus references. Feminist performance art, freak bicycle accidents, and pining over author photos on book jackets. Just some of the situations our characters encounter.
Clever metafiction by a great storyteller. Now for more Øyehaug English translations... I hope there are more to come!